A violent and abusive woman who abused and assaulted her husband for 20 years has been jailed. Sheree Spencer, 45, was a heavy drinker and punched, kicked and slapped her husband in attacks that left him feeling trapped.
A court was told how Spencer once struck her husband with a wine bottle, leaving him with a "cauliflower" ear and chipped elbow. She was known to drink up to three bottles of wine a day.
As reported by The Mirror, Hull Crown Court heard how the attacks left her husband living in fear and despair. Police received 43 pictures of injuries inflicted by Spencer and two hours of recorded incidents.
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Spencer, of Beals Close, Market Weighton in East Yorkshire, admitted coercive and controlling behaviour between January 2016 and June 2021. She also admitted three offences of assaulting her husband, causing actual bodily harm, between January and April 2020.
Michele Stuart-Lofthouse, prosecuting, said they had been together as a couple since the year 2000 and had three young children together. Spencer's violent behaviour was revealed after the police were alerted.
During one incident, Spencer, a former Ministry of Justice employee, spat at her husband and grabbed him by the throat, giving him breathing difficulties. Her behaviour had changed while the couple were living in London and she became aggressive, pushing and slapping him.
She hit him on the back of the head with a wine glass, causing an injury that needed stitches. The husband handed over 43 photographs of injuries, 36 video clips and nine mobile phone recordings to the police.
As well as frequent kicking, punching, hitting, biting and spitting, Spencer regularly hurled insults at him. She damaged his property, including laptops, phones, clothes and household items.
She was heard saying: "You're not a f***ing man. I want you out of my life." In one incident, she damaged a tyre on his car using a kitchen knife, she lunged at him with the knife, causing a 2cm cut below his knee.
In a statement read to the court, her husband said he has suffered 20 years of physical and mental abuse. Spencer's "unpredictable and threatening" behaviour caused him to become estranged from his family.
She controlled all aspects of his daily life including which room he slept in and which toilet he could use. He said: "She threatened to make false allegations to me to the police."
He felt "trapped" and he "feared the consequences of speaking out" and became "increasingly hardened" to the abuse, including kicking and punching. Spencer's husband said that, after she was arrested, the problems continued during Family Court hearings through her claiming that she was the victim and by using character assassination against him.
"She continued to exert her control over me," he said. She was "unnecessarily obstructive" and it was three months before she would allow the family home to be sold.
He added: "I have had to seek help from my GP on several occasions." Defence barrister Richard Pratt KC said that there was "little if anything" that could be said in mitigation.
Mr Pratt said: "It's a shocking, distressing case. Alcohol played the most significant part in what happened."
A combination of alcohol and her prescription medication caused Spencer to behave in a way which "appalled" her. She accepted she had caused pain and humiliation to her husband.
Judge Rayfield said: "You have caused him significant psychological harm. There is a history of violence and abuse against the same victim."
Spencer was jailed for four years and given an indefinite restraining order. She grinned as she left the dock to be taken down to the cells.
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